At last – some light in South Africa’s crime tunnel. Let’s hold thumbs for a continuation of this trend.

Handelsblatt, a German business daily, reported yesterday about the “dramatically bad” ticket sales for the Confederation Cup. Apparently the SA government blamed the sponsors for not doing enough to promote the Confederation Cup and the World Cup to be staged in South Africa next year – and FIFA blamed the SA organisers.

In turn, the organisers blamed the local population for their disinterest in the events.

All in all, not a nice message to send around the world. 

[Read on]

A recent international study ranked SA the second cheapest country in the world to set up in. However, SA was pulled down on the overall ranking of “Best places to live in” by a second criterium called “quality of life”.

SA was given a much lower ranking for “quality of life” (probably because of the high level of crime). Consequently, SA could only make it into seventh place on the “Best places to live” ranking, reported the International Investment site here.

Worse news: New Zealand was ranked “Best place to live”. 

Here is the full ranking for “Best place to live”: New Zealand, Italy, Australia, Portugal, Dubai, Spain, South Africa, UK, Florida, Singapore, Canada, France, Hong Kong and New York in that order.

PS. Not all will agree with France and New York’s low ranking! In fact, many might think these are the best places to be in the world.

First published on my old blog on 10/6/2008. 

There’s something especially dangerous about being a reggae singer in South Africa these days. Take a look at this extract from an article posted on the BBC website this morning. [Read on]

First published on my old blog on 16/5/2008. 

The abduction at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and gang-raping of a well-known winemaking family’s daughter by three men last Saturday will stretch the Boland community’s “stay-positive-no-matter-what” attitude to living in the new South Africa to the limits in coming weeks. [Read on]

First published on my old blog on 10/5/2007. 

In the article below I “suggested” the SA government’s international campaign to convince the investment community that crime is under control and, in fact, on the way out, will fail dismally. Why? Because crime is a HUGE problem in SA and might well be out of control. [Read on]

First reported on my old blog on 2/5/2007.

According to a local newspaper the South African government launched an “aggressive international campaign” to change the perception (apparently) rife in the international investment community that SA is a crime-ridden place where the authorities lost the battle against crime. [Read on]